Monday, 11 March 2013

X-Wing, general concepts of listbuilding.

Hi guys, i felt you all needed to see this, this is originally from Clint over at the the metal bikini.com so all credit goes to him for this!

General Concepts of Listbuilding

General ConceptsAs
with most miniatures games, X-Wing uses a point system to rank the
general effectiveness of pilots (and subsequently the ship they’re
piloting) and the various upgrades available to them. Also like most
miniatures games, the player immediately finds himself with a decision
to make regarding the makeup of his flight roster- go for few ships
worth more points or more ships worth less points? How many ships?Again-
the most important skill to possess in X-Wing is being able to maneuver
and move ships effectively, full stop. The best pilots and upgrades
will not save you if you can’t get them into position to maximize
effectiveness or have lost Actions because of collisions with asteroids
or other ships. For this reason, I suggest to the new player to build
lists in favor of more ships worth less points
rather than fewer expensive ships. Simply put, there’s more room for
error this way. Currently at 100 points, a Rebel player for example is
either going to be fielding 3 highly tooled ships or 4 low to medium
points ships with perhaps one high PR pilot. If a collision does occur
from poor planning or a surprise move from the opponent, the player with
only three ships has just lost 33% of his actions for the round, while
the 4-ship player has only lost 25%. The
exception here would be the beginner Imperial player as he can
mathematically field up to 8 TIEs in a standard 100 point game. Novice
players would likely have great difficulty maneuvering all those ships
in effective ways without colliding. Recall that X-Wing is played on a
3’ x 3’ surface; now imagine moving around 8 bases worth of TIEs and
trying to maneuver them around each other in anything but straight
lines. See what I mean? I
think the “sweet spot” for a 100 points Rebel squadron for anything but
an advanced player is definitely four ships, and I strongly advise 4
X-Wings for new/ novice players. For an Imperial player, I’d suggest no
more than 6 ships, 5 being preferable for the purposes of movement and
maneuvering at least while still getting the feel for the game. How many upgrades? In
the X-Wing Miniatures rule system, not all ships have the same upgrades
available to them. In fact, some low-points/ low Pilot Rank ships have
zero upgrades available to them while expensive pilots in the game often
have a plethora of upgrades available to them in the form of Elite
Talents in addition to the more standard ship upgrades. I
think the key to choosing upgrades largely stems from the player and
his play style, but speaking in generalities, few ship upgrades
(generally secondary weapon systems and droids) are more effective for
their points than paying the points for a unique Named pilot over a
generic pilot. For
example, a Black Squadron TIE Fighter (14 pts) has access to the Elite
Skills upgrades. Contextually (i.e. part of the 5-man TIE squadron I
mentioned earlier as being optimal for a player still fairly new to the
game), the most advantageous Elite Talent would probably be “Squad
Leader” (2). This allows the Black Squadron TIE to bestow an additional
Action upon a ship within range 1-2 as long as that ship has a lower
Pilot Rating. Total cost with upgrade- 16 points. Compare
that ship to the named TIE Pilot “Backstabber.” Backstabber is for all
intents and purposes a 16 points standard TIE Fighter, but Backstabber’s
special rule states that if Backstabber is outside of his target’s
firing arc, he rolls one additional attack die. With a TIE Fighter’s
superior movement over every other ship in the game at this point,
coupled with Backstabber’s relatively high Pilot Ranking (6 compared to
Black Squadron’s 4), it’s highly likely if maneuvered effectively that
Backstabber will be able to bring 3 attack dice to bear with regularity-
the same as an X-Wing, and a whopping four attack dice if Backstabber
can manage to get into range band 1 of his target while staying out of
that ship’s firing arc. Now,
does that mean one should never, ever, ever take Black Squadron TIEs?
Of course not. The unique named pilots may only appear in a player’s
squadron one time- no multiple instances, so there are times where
taking Black Squadron TIE is a great thing... it’s just going to most
likely be after the player has already selected Backstabber and some of
the other named TIE pilots. For
the Rebels, it plays out largely the same, but it’s much more difficult
to kit out Rebel ships with much of anything in the way of upgrades
because so few Rebel ships have access to Elite Talents. Really, there
are only two upgrades- secondary weapon systems (of which there is
exactly one usable by all Wave 1 Rebel fighters- Proton Torpedoes) and
an Astromech droid. As Proton Torpedoes are of debatable effect on
X-Wings in this game (see below), that really only leaves the droid as a
valid upgrade. Of the droids available, only four bestow effects that
don’t require an Action- R2-D2, R5-K6, R2 Astromech, and R5 Astromech.
This isn’t to say that having a droid whose special ability requires an
action is a terrible idea, but nearly all of the named pilots have
skills that are always in play and don’t require the player to use an
Action. This of course is significant because any collision results in
the loss of the player’s ability to take an Action for the round. I
won’t get into the specifics of the droids here- I’ll leave that for the
Rebel upgrades section.So Which Do I Choose? As
with most miniatures game, the key to producing a successful list is to
find the balance between the expensive few and the cheaper many. In
X-Wing, this is artificially imposed by the rule that named pilots may
only appear once in a player’s squadron as previously mentioned. As
for how many named pilots versus generics make the final cut into a
player’s squadron, it depends on faction and how many ships make up the
squadron along with a player’s own play style and tendencies. Taking a
named pilot only benefits the owning player with a higher Pilot Ranking
and a special ability not otherwise available to other builds of that
ship- Luke in an X-Wing is exactly the same as anyone else in an
X-Wing stats-wise; all X-Wings have 3 Attack, 2 Defense, 2 Shields, and 3
Hull regardless of who is driving. Tactically, the difference in points
between Luke and Rookie X-Wing is Luke moving later in the movement
phase (high pilot ranking) and picking his action after most everyone
else has moved, shooting early in the shooting phase (high pilot
ranking), and when he is attacked, he will change one “eyeball” result
to an evade symbol (his special ability). Whether or not that’s worth
the 7 points difference between Luke and a Rookie X-Wing pilot depends
on the player, but most of the time and in most situations, it most
certainly is worth it. Understanding your upgrades/ special abilitiesRealizing
what effects a particular upgrade or pilot special ability yields
in-game and how that assimilates into your play style is the most
important aspect of list building in X-Wing. As there are no massively
undercosted/ overcosted ships or options in the game, any build can be
viable in the right hands, and conversely a list that the internet has
fallen in love with can fall flat on its face if you run your ships into
asteroids every turn.

As before, this article was written by Clint over at the metal bikini.com so all credit goes to him.
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